Antwerp

It was supposed to be a relatively straight forward long cycle. We had planned it to take the whole day, not sure if we had planned 14.5 hours of cycling though! We passed through the Belgium-NLands border of Pute, where I dropped my camera in a midst of road traffic of cars, motorbikes and mobs of competitive racing cyclists. Thankfully it didn't take much to retrieve it! After cycling a while after Pute, we realised that we couldn't use much of the A roads in the NL. It was a bit confusing as some parts were okay for bikes, others weren't. So where we had planned to use the A roads we had to find an alternative route; when we reached klutsdrop we spent roughly an hour cycling around trying different routes to get from A to B without being able to use the main road. Frustratingly enough, we could see the town we needed to get to on the other side of the road, but knew we had to do a huge detour because of the frequently reoccurring road works blocking the way. Ugh, it was so frustrating! So we decided to cycle back on ourselves for the fourth time, and just try and see if we would get any closer to the town... It ended up taking us straight through the town, across the A road via the bridge we'd been staring at for an hour, and on to the right cycle path - all in the matter of five minutes!!! We've been through this kind of thing countless of times but still hadn't learnt to trust our instincts. The next big obstacle was getting in to Rotterdam. It was the same trouble we'd had earlier with the Aroads, because this time we had noticed on the google maps it said a ferry service was required. Eh? Hang about?! A ferry service to get into the city? At this time it was about six pm and we were frantically trying to see if there was an alternative route to the ferry as we had no idea what time the service stopped. We had decided just to go to Oud Beijerland and hope there was a ferry service!! So we cycled all of the back roads avoiding the planned route of the A road, and finally reached Oud Beijerland. A sleepy little town near the river. After cycling around in circles trying to find our a ferry, we stopped in to a bar and asked for information, the waitress directed us to the port but said that she didn't know what time they stopped. We tried that place a try again, and again it was unsuccessful. By this time we were getting hungry and decided to stop for a bite to eat in Bavarian bear bar - imagine a big wooden shack with teddy beads everywhere... Yeah. Lovely food and service- just what the doctor ordered. After finding a bar with wifi ... And of course, it had to be a bar! We found out that there was a tunnel that crosses under the water, in to Rotterdam so off we went! And the tunnel was epic! Zooming down the tunnel and up the other end, we were in Rotterdam which led to a spectacular city entrance which I will give proper attention to, right after my sleep in this sketchy Amsterdam hostel!

Antwerp

I am trying to remember the cycle to Antwerp but we have cycled so much and now that I am in The Hague, it seems like it was moons ago! Ah yes, Brussels to Antwerp was fairly uneventful. 30miles in the sunshine, through small Belgium towns. When we arrived in Antwerp, we were so excitable, this place was gorgeous! There was an absolutely beautiful sunset over the river, so he first stop was a picture in front of a bright pink, orange and dusky purple backdrop. Then, directly in front of us was a kingly cathedral overlooking the whole of Antwerp with a proud dominance. We headed for that direction and quickly noticed Antwerp was quietly rich and a luxurious place. Ferraris and porches rolled around, yet no where had a boastful air to it... It's hard to put in to words, but if you wanted to get a feel of the city then I suppose that's something worth noting. After a meal in the square, we started towards our hostel, which was the complete opposite of quiet luxury. It was a really hippy vibed hostel. The front room - it felt that homely!- had wicker chairs, low lights, dusty ornaments and a couple of sofas. Oddly there were two armless full mannequins nailed to the wall...

The room we stayed in had 14 beds in, and that was just one room of three floors in this old rickety house. The breakfast was really nice there, the lady put on a typical spread of cold meats, cheese, bread and a selection of spreads with coffee and juices - I've really grown to like a jam sandwich and a coffee in the morning! So yes, that was the hostel. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay in Antwerp that long (sad face) as we had to set out for the long cycle to Rotterdam. The more we told people about our cycle to Rotterdam the more unsure we felt ... A shocked 'Oh! Good luck' usually followed! But it was forecasted for 19 degree Celsius and boy it didn't disappoint!